Adopting Children

One family describes their adoption experience.

This month Studio Classroom talks with Aaron Heidel about adoption. Aaron and his wife, Jean, have written a book about their adoption experiences. They live in Taipei with their four children.

SC: Tell us about your family.
AH: I'm an American and my wife is from Taipei. We have four adopted children. Hannah is 8 and is in second grade. Ellie is 6, Donny is 3, and Andrew is 2. The youngest three spend their time hanging out at home.

SC: Why did you decide to adopt four kids?
AH: We want to have kids and tried everything but couldn't get pregnant. Our friends had adopted two kids, and we were inspired by their example. We applied to adopt, and one year later, we received 11-day-old Hannah. We adopted Elie because it can be lonely being an only child, and we wanted a big family. We thought long and hard about adopting a third child. Eventually we decided we would like a son, so we applied to two orphanages. We got Donny when he was five months old, and nine months later we got Andrew.

SC: How long did it take to adjust to being a family?
AH: At first you feel like a 24-hour babysitter. But within a few days some strong feelings of affection and love begin to develop. Having the other kids be part of adopting their siblings enriches the whole process.

SC: What type of process did you go through before you were able to adopt?
AH: First we had to accept the fact that we couldn't have children. Then we had to convince our families to support us. We also did a lot of research on adoption agencies.

We filled out lots of paperwork and answered some very personal questions. Next come parenting and adoption classes and waiting for what seemed like an eternity. Picking up the new family member is the fun part. But even after that, we had a trial period of three to six months before getting the final acceptance of the adoption.

Once we had approval, we needed to change the kids' last names and update their records.

SC: What was most challenging about adopting?
AH: Parenting in general was and continues to be challenging. It's hard to figure out how to raise healthy kids. The added thing with adoption is getting the kids to understand their adoption. Our policy is to be very open about it, so they don't have to deal with the shock of realization.

SC: What is most rewarding?
AH: Having kids is the rewarding part. Kids are awesome. They change your priorities - usually in a good way.


Vocabulary Tips:
pregnant-怀孕，怀胎
*Natalie and her husband are having a hard time getting pregnant.
pregnant with-怀那一个用"with"。
*Sandy was pregnant with her first child when she got promoted. 怀她第一个孩子
think long and hard -深思熟虑，认真考虑许久。
*Laurence thought long and hard before he decided to change his career.
*I believe you should think long and hard before you get married.认为。
affection -感情，爱慕。 very like, love.
*Bobby is never shy about his affections for his wife.不掩饰对。。爱慕之情
*You can see the strong affection between the nanny and the baby.
inspire-激发 give you an idea want to do something.
enrich- 增添，使丰富， to improve the quality of something.
acceptance-不可数名词，接受，承认，接纳，认可 accept -接受
*His acceptance of the award caused a lot of criticism.
*acceptance -认可
*Her enthusiasm quickly gained acceptance from her co-workers.
realization -领悟，恍然大悟。忽然明白，
*There has been a growing realization of how serious global warming is.
*She was shocked by the sudden realization that she was actually the one hurting others.
reward-给与奖励的现在分词，(adj.) 值得，有回报的，没有白费有价值的。
*Ashley loves to take care of patients. She thinks it's quite rewarding.
*The intense training was rewarding, because we have only lost one game.
challenge and reward.-挑战和回报。
What seems like an eternity- the process take very long time.

Chat Room:
At first you feel like a 24-hour babysitter.
babysitter- 保姆，（不固定，钟点工以钟头计费，请来家看顾，且没受专业。）
nanny -专业全职的保姆。（要提供休假及福利，有的还提供食宿）
baby sister- your younger sister
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trial period/ grace period- 试用期/宽限期。
trial period - 实验期，试用期，通常“商品”或“杂志”有提供免费试用期。新进 员工试用期
probationary period =trial period -新进员工试用期。
grace period -宽限期，尤惠期。信用卡帐单发出到到最后付款日，这期间叫“宽限期”, grace -慈悲，恩惠。

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